Strikes by physicians in public hospitals in India.

Abstract

Can strikes by resident doctors training to become consultants in Indian public-sector teaching hospitals be ethical? These hospitals were established for the medical care of the very poor in a country where health insurance and a national health service are nonexistent. In such a situation, the paralysis of tertiary healthcare centers by striking doctors runs contrary to the raison d'être of the profession. It also violates the first dictum of medicine: Primum, non nocere. And although there is some discussion in the Western literature on strikes by doctors, authorities in India are silent on the subject.